Number of houses planned on Green Belt – March 2015
Research by the Campaign to Protect Rural England has found that 219,000 houses are planned for Green Belt sites:
Metropolitan (around London): 86,935
Yorkshire: 40,800
West Midlands: 35,550
South West (inc West of England county region): 16,245
Nottinghamshire: 13,800
North West: 11,810
North East: 8,000
Oxfordshire: 4,510
Cambridgeshire: 1,885
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/destruction-green-belt-land-rockets-5408790
Parliament was dissolved today, so please newspapers and local Tories, immediately stop calling him our MP and call him a prospective Parliamentary candidates for East Devon – just like all the others, which is all he now is.
“When Parliament is dissolved, every seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant. All business in the House comes to an end. There are no Members of Parliament. MPs revert to being members of the public and lose privileges associated with being a Member of Parliament.”
MPs are allowed access to Parliament for just a few days in which to remove papers from their offices. The facilities that the House provides for MPs in Westminster during a Parliament are no longer available to them from 5pm on the day of dissolution.
Until a new Parliament is elected, there are no MPs. Those who wish to be MPs again must stand again as candidates for election.”
http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/dissolution/
Here is what one of the 23 rebel Tory MPs said about William Hague trying to change the way the Speaker of the House is voted for – secretly instead of transparently:
“In a tearful speech, Tory MP Charles Walker, chairman of the Commons procedure committee, claimed he had been “played for a fool” by ministers over the issue.
Mr Walker said he had attended Mr Hague’s leaving drinks this week, spending 20 minutes saying goodbye to his special adviser and speaking to Deputy Commons Leader Tom Brake and Chief Whip Michael Gove, “all of whom would have been aware of what was going on”.
He said: “I have been played as a fool and when I go home tonight I will look in the mirror and see an honourable fool looking back at me and I would much rather be an honourable fool in this and any other matter than a clever man.
Labour MPs got to their feet and gave the Tory MP a round of applause – something that is not supposed to happen under Commons rules.”
…Labour’s shadow commons leader Angela Eagle said Mr Hague should be “ashamed of himself” for “going along” with what she claimed was a plot by David Cameron to get rid of Mr Bercow.
“It is a petty and spiteful act because he hates his government being properly scrutinised thanks to this reforming Speaker,” she told MPs.
In a statement, she added: “This is a humiliating defeat for David Cameron on the last day of this Parliament. Instead of talking about ways to improve the lives of working people, in the last week all the prime minister has done is play petty partisan games and arrogantly talk about his retirement plans. In today’s vote decency and democracy prevailed.”
Swire’s benefits gag is no joke to election rivals
Hugo Swire’s election rivals have called on him to apologise after he was secretly filmed joking about welfare claimants at a Tory fundraiser.
The East Devon MP made the comments at the Cabout welfare claimants at a Tory fundraiser.
The East Devon MP made the comments at the Conservative ‘black and white’ fundraising ball last month, which raised millions for their election campaign.
The footage was part of a Channel 4 Dispatches ‘sting’ into election funding screened on Monday.
Before a wealthy audience, Mr Swire, a former Sotheby’s director, led an auction at the Grosvenor House hotel in Mayfair.
Mr Swire was trying to persuade wealthy donors to bid more, and at one point said: “£60,000 … Ian, persuade him … He’s not on benefits is he? Well if he is, then he can afford it … £55,000?”
Mr Swire told the Journal this week: “This was an off-the-cuff dig to raise money for the party. It was not an attack on the welfare state.”
East Devon’s Labour candidate, Steve Race, said: “These comments show just how out of touch he, and this government, is. I’ve been to a food bank, one of three operating in East Devon, and I know that poverty is no laughing matter.
“Ordinary people talk to me about the struggles they have to pay the bills.
“We need real solutions not these callous comments from an MP who thinks poverty is worthy of a cheap joke at a fundraiser with his millionaire pals. I hope Hugo Swire does the decent thing and issues a public apology”
Liberal Democrat candidate Stuart Mole said: “I was appalled by the sight of a wealthy Conservative minister mocking people on benefits at an exclusive Mayfair ball.
“He insults some of his most vulnerable constituents and shows the disconnect between some politicians and the people they seek to represent. I think he should apologise.”
Independent candidate Claire Wright said: “What is funny about people who face a daily battle trying to survive on benefits?
“It is not funny for those who struggle to scrape together the funds in an attempt to make ends meet.
“It shows him in a poor and callous light. His comments reflect a worrying lack of compassion that characterises this government. Mr Swire should apologise for his crass remarks.”
UKIP candidate Andrew Chapman said the comments were in ‘extremely poor taste’.
He added: “Mr Swire’s joke, albeit in private company, shows just how little people in the ‘Westminster bubble’ understand about the realities of life in the UK.”
Our local, current MP has used one of his final columns of this Parliament to extol the virtues of George Osborne saying he knows him ” pretty well”.
His ONE mention of the South West (not East Devon) is to say that Help to Buy ISAs could help 95,000 people to buy their first homes. (Surely not all of them in East Devon but you can’t be sure of anything about “economic growth” in East Devon these days!).
IT WILL NOT HELP IF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE DON’T HAVE JOBS AND CAN’T GET AFFORDABLE HOUSING!
Whilst general unemployment has dropped (thanks in large part to tax credits and part-time zero hours contracts favouring employers rather than employees) youth unemployment stubbornly refused to fall.
Still, Cranbrook, phases 1-100 will benefit local developers.
Conservatives do not like their fellow-Conservative Speaker of the House, John Bercow, who was elected in a transparent ballot. So, William Hague is using the last day of this Parliament to try change it so election of Speaker is done by secret ballot.
Why? So Tories cannot be seen NOT voting for someone of their own party.
“William Hague, who is Leader of the Commons until he quits as an MP, tonight stunned opposition parties by drastically tabling the change to the rules.”
What can you say except: DO NOT VOTE FOR THESE PEOPLE
who trample on democracy and who want EVERYTHING decided behind closed doors.
Isn’t it interesting that our doctors and nurses can work without complaint in Victorian – even Georgian – buildings, yet our councillors can’t bear working in offices built in the 1980’s?
Haven’t the priorities of our councillors put their taste for luxury before what they could have spent the money on had they stayed put.
Sad days – but remember, your Independent councillors were prepared to stay put and spend the money saved on US.
One for the next council since this one wouldn’t know a sensible decision about anything much except their own welfare:
http://realzorro1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/rip-knowle-get-angry-get-even-vote-7-may.html
Not to mention a post on comparing our current MP, Hugo Swire, to Mr Bean!
http://realzorro1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/more-press-coverage-for-hugo-swire-aka.html
East Devon Watch 